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$400,000 Grant Jumpstarts Fundraising Effort for 'Woven Wonders'

April 1, 2011

With the award of a $400,000 grant from the federal preservation competition Save America’s Treasures, Arizona State Museum (ASM) is in the midst of a fundraising campaign for an additional $500,000 to construct a climate-controlled storeroom and a new interpretive space for its vast collection of southwestern basketry and other “woven wonders” of American heritage.

Arizona State Museum cares for some of the world’s most significant collections representing the peoples of the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Among the museum’s vast and varied collections is the comprehensive assemblage of American Indian basketry. With more than 25,000 specimens, the collection includes not only baskets but cradleboards, sandals, mats, cordage, and preserved fibers representing every indigenous basket-making group in North America dating from 8,000 years ago to the present.

“Receiving this grant is an honor because it recognizes the national importance of the collection, but it is also testimony that the collection faces imminent danger of deterioration caused by inadequate environmental controls within the museum's two historic buildings," said Dr. Nancy Odegaard, the museum’s head conservator. "All measures have been taken to ensure responsible stewardship; now the only step left is placing the objects into a renovated space.”

Up to now the museum’s baskets have been stored in cramped rooms, without environmental controls or fire suppression systems.

According to Odegaard, an upgraded “visible vault” for this collection will mitigate threats from light, temperature, humidity, insects, and abrasion. Not only will the upgrades provide the vital atmospheric controls, they will create a living exhibit and a dynamic educational venue through which the museum can share this incomparable collection with the public.

Presently, the collection is housed in several rooms in two buildings, out of public view. This project will make the extensive collection of “woven wonders” accessible to students, scholars, members of Native American communities, and the general public.

In February 2011, the National Park Service and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities jointly announced the awarding of $14.3 million in federal competitive Save America’s Treasures grants.

The grants are made in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Save America’s Treasures’ private partner, the National Trust for Historic Preservation. With the grants, 60 organizations and agencies will conserve our country's cultural and historic treasures.

This is the second such award earned by Arizona State Museum from Save America’s Treasures. The first grant came in the year 2000 for the museum’s pottery collection, which, at 20,000+ whole vessels, is the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. Through that grant and through generous contributions from members, friends, and tribal communities the collection is now accessible to the public through a climate-controlled display wall, a visible storage vault, and a dedicated exhibition gallery.

Donate Today!

Help us save these American treasures through a generous tax-deductible contribution.

Donate quickly and easily to ASM’s “conservation fund” using the University of Arizona Foundation’s secure web site.

Or, checks payable to “University of Arizona/ASM Woven Wonders,” may be sent to: